In the early 1960s Kent State was excited about seeing themselves on television.  The Music and Speech Building was newly constructed and closed circuit TV was finally at Kent State.

The Stater said the Radio and Speech program was"one of the nation's finest facilities for educational radio and TV broadcasting." The newly constructed classrooms and offices were state of the art.

President Kennedy signed legislation in 1962 that provided $32 million for educational television. By that time, Kent State already had what the Stater called "one of the most modern televsion studios in the U.S. and is moving rapidly forward with a closed circuit television period." The Stater also reported the university was considering a broadcasting station.

Throughout the 60s the University of Akron and Kent State argued over the public airways. An internal argument grew at Kent State to whether or not TV would remain soley educational or if would expand to more such as films and comedy shows. The first cable broadcast would go out from Kent State in 1965.

It wouldn't be until October 1968 that Kent State students had a TV station of their own. Bill Sattelmeyer, a student participant of WKSU-TV, said the following about his experience at the new station:

"Our newsroom is five desks and five chairs.  The phone line isn't in. There are only two typewriters.  One film camera is in, but no processor; Polaroids are unavailable; no portable VTR's; the regular equipment is not fully operational, and the cable to the dorms is not completely installed. We sighed, chose our assignments and went to work... There is no set yet. Two half-completed benches in front of curtains make a temporary set..."

That fall, WKSU-TV live programming consisted of two hours a day, five days a week. 

The following spring, WKSU-TV became just TV-2 and was broadcasting from 5:30 to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday.  In addition to the news, it included "Reverb," a talk show, short flicks, reports from the student government and university administration and feature length movies.

In 1971, the first student advisory board consisted of Dave DiManna, Bill McCoy, John Doutt, Greg Beneditti, John Roche, Dave Darmour and Carl Monday, who had this to say about his experience:

"Those were fun days... but also a true learning experience... especially in the days of the Kent State shootings... and what followed."

WJW in Cleveland was a big help in 1975 when
TV-2 purchased three 10-year-old cameras from the
station.  One camera allowed the station to
broadcast in color.

TV-2 would continue to produce students ready for anything. Working at the station they would gain valuable real-time experience. Gene Stebbins, the faculty adviser in 1985, said:

"It's one thing to practice in the lab, and a whole different thing producing a live show. I've watched network news for years, and never once have I heard them come on the air and say, 'Sorry, folks, we're not ready to do the news.' it takes discipline to survive in the TV world. Our students learn each day what that means."

It was a big step in 1987 when telecommunications merged with the School of Journalism. It changed what TV-2 was, it became more content oriented.

Broadcast Beat and Reporting Public Affairs (classes) came along after the merger. Students used to have to take Print Beat as well as Broadcast Beat.

The next milestone was in the early 1990s. TV-2 became like the Stater: it became a student media. Professor, Gary Hanson said, "Once they got student media status it was opened up to the governance of students." It opened up to more funding.

The computer became popular and the Internet revolutionized in the 90s as well. Finding information for the news was able to be done quicker with the internet and the technology proved to make better television.

The computer numbers grew in size in 1997 and at a cost of $35,000 the broadcast news lab in the Music and Speech installed a newsroom computer system.

In the mid-90s TV-2 was put onto Time Warner cable. Before the new millenium, in 1999, non-linear editing was introduced and CNN feeds were added.

By 2004, the School was almost completely digital.

Read about the future...